“Sounds like love to me.” Anna started making kissy faces at me.
“I don’t know that we’re there yet. I mean, I really like him and I’m sure I’m not far off, but I’m in no rush to say it. We have this explosive chemistry, but sometimes he makes me so mad, I want to take an axe to his balls.”
“Is this where all the murdering came into play?”
“Yes, we were arguing about things that could happen to make us break up and I may have taken things too far. They were some pretty creative ideas, if I do say so myself.”
“So, he’s gonna build you a room to write in?”
“Well, after I stubbornly agreed to move in, we sat down and talked about how to make this really work so we aren’t in each others space. He suggested building a room for me that could be for me to work in, but would also function as a getaway for me. It could have a reading nook or a cozy area for friends to come hang out. That way if we both have friends over, we aren’t talking tampons while he’s trying to watch the game.”
“I hear ya there. It’s totally different living with a man. Women are all alike, for the most part. I will never understand how men bond over football and beer. There isn’t actually any conversation that has any meaning. I mean, sure they talk about the game, but the most in depth answer a guy will give is I’m doing good, man,” Anna mimicked in a deep voice.
Harper laughed, “Yeah, men don’t do talking very well. I think that’s my biggest reservation about moving in with him. We get along great and I really, really like him. I just don’t feel like we ever talk about anything. I asked him the other night to tell me something he really wanted to do and he said travel. I asked him to elaborate and he looked at me all confused. Like why would I need more explanation?”
“Well, maybe now that you’ll be living with him, you’ll just pick up on stuff and then eventually he’ll share more with you.” We both burst out laughing at the absurdity of the statement. Yeah, because men were so simple.
I set to work on unloading my bookcase into smaller boxes and marking them. Then, I moved on to photo albums, paperwork, and knicknacks. By the time we finished with boxing up the smaller items, it was lunch time. We went down to the sub shop and were climbing the stairs to my apartment when Anna stopped in her tracks.
“Harper, you locked the door when we left, didn’t you?”
I looked at the door, worry swirling in my gut. This was why Jack didn’t want me living here. It was a shady building and there had been quite a few robberies here. I was just shocked that it hadn’t happened before now, but was amazed it had happened since Jack had the door reinforced.
“Yeah, I did.” I started to approach the door and Anna grabbed my arm.
“Wait! You can’t just walk in there. Whoever broke in could still be there,” she whisper-hissed.
“I don’t hear anything. I’m sure it’s fine. You stay out here and I’ll check it out.”
“Yeah right. You know what’s worse than Jack finding out you went in there? If I let you go in alone.”
We pushed the door open and were relieved to see an empty apartment. Nothing appeared to be out of place, but we couldn’t see into the kitchen, the bedroom, or the bathroom. Anna tiptoed through the living room towards the kitchen. She peered stealthily around the wall and saw the kitchen was empty. Anna shot me some hand signals, pointing with her fingers and making various hand gestures. I mouthed back to Anna that I didn’t understand and threw out a few of my own hand gestures. We kept going like this back and forth until we heard a noise from the bathroom. My heart ramped up and I grabbed the first thing I could find, which was a rolled up poster. I clutched it in my hands like a baseball bat. Anna grabbed the dining room chair and held it like a lion tamer. We headed towards the bathroom, arms raised, wielding our weapons.
“Really? A poster? That’s what you’re going with,” Anna whispered to me.
“What are you going to do with a chair? Politely ask him to sit down and explain why he’s trying to rob me? Maybe make him some tea and scones?”
It was a little habit of mine to become extremely sarcastic when I was in an uncomfortable situation or when I was scared. I didn’t want to appear weak to others, so that’s how my fear manifested.
As we were whispering back and forth, the door creaked open and it didn’t register until a large figure stepped out. We both screamed and I swung the poster with all my might at the intruder’s head. Anna lifter the chair over her head and smashed the chair to little bits over his back. Even after he fell, I continued to assault the man until I was sure he wasn’t moving. We both stood there heaving for several minutes, arms still raised until we were sure he wasn’t going to move.
I looked over at Anna and saw that all that was left of the chair was one of the legs. Then I looked down at her poster and saw it was all bent and mashed up.
“Aww, man. I mashed my poster. I’ll never be able to use this again,” I whined.
“You’re never going to be able to use this chair again either.”
“You really beat the shit out of him with that chair.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. I’m sure you gave him quite a few paper cuts with that poster. Those hurt like a bitch,” Anna said fiercely.
“You bet your ass I did,” I said triumphantly. We looked at each other and then burst out laughing. Anna had tears shooting from her eyes, literally. I clutched at the pain in my side from laughing so hard.
“I mashed my poster,” Anna said mockingly. We were caught up in another round of laughter when there was a pounding on the door, followed by a few large men entering the apartment.
“Police, freeze! Put your hands in the air. Drop your weapons!”
We whirled around at the command and I really tried, but when he told me to lower my weapon, I started laughing again. Did a poster really count as a weapon? We were both still poised for an attack when I finally calmed down enough to realize there were guns pointed at us and the officers weren’t looking too jovial. I slowly lowered my arms and whispered for Anna to do the same. Anna dropped the chair leg to the ground with a thud and I cursed her for making the loud noise. I didn’t really want to get shot because someone was trigger happy.
“We got a call about a possible break in. Is this your residence?”
That came from the hunk of beef standing in front of me. He was extremely sexy in his uniform and my mind drifted to Channing Tatum. I perused his body, wondering if he ever did a striptease in that uniform, but then remembered Jack. Hey, a girl could look.
Hands still raised, Anna pointed a finger at me.
“Mind telling me what happened here and who the man on the floor is?” the first officer asked as he lowered his weapon.
I told the officer what happened from the beginning and watched the officer’s face take on a look of incredulity.
“You came in here knowing there was someone inside?” That came from hunk of beef number two. Also a very good looking guy that could also do a Magic Mike for me at any time.
I rolled my eyes. “Of course we didn’t know someone was in here. I didn’t want to call the police if there was no one here. Besides, we handled it.”
The second officer walked over to the man and checked his vitals, called it in, and put him in cuffs.
“Ma’am, in the future, please call the police and let us handle it.”
I heard a ruckus in the hall and heard Sean announcing himself before he and Jack entered. Jack was calling to me before he entered the apartment and I looked at the ceiling, knowing this was going to be bad. This just proved his point of my apartment being unsafe and I would never hear the end of it.
“Harper! What the fuck?” They stopped inside the door when they saw the police officers and the man on the floor.
“Hey, Jack,” I responded nonchalantly.
“Hey, Jack? I got a call from Sean saying that there was a break in reported at this address. I was freaking out.”
Jack walked over to me and
pulled me into a tight squeeze. This wasn’t the reaction I had been expecting. I thought he would come in and start lecturing me about how stupid it was to enter and how it wasn’t safe for a woman to live here alone. I liked this Jack a lot better.
“We’re okay, Jack. Anna beat him over the head with a chair.”
“Yeah and Harper beat him with a poster.” Jack’s head swiveled from me to Anna and then back to me.
“A poster? You couldn’t find something….harder?”
I could tell he was trying not to fume, but he was also trying to disguise the fact that he thought I was an idiot. Yes. I beat up a man with a poster. In hindsight, I should have found something else, but at the time, I grabbed the first thing I saw.
The second police officer that was kneeling by the man spoke up. “This guy has quite a few paper cuts. That’s gonna hurt like a bitch when he wakes up.”
I glanced up and saw Jack glaring daggers at him. I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face.
“Why didn’t you call me? Or the police? Anna, what were you thinking letting her come in here?”
And there it was. Caveman Jack was coming out in full force. He was practically shouting at Anna and that really pissed me off. We were almost attacked by a robber and we fought him off. I was still coming down from the adrenaline rush and I had plenty of pent up anger to unleash.
“Please tell me you did not just ask why she let me come into my own apartment.” I crossed my arms and glared at Jack.
“Dude, just shut the fuck up. It’s not worth it right now,” the first police officer whispered out of the corner of his mouth. Jack blew a breath out a breath and took a minute to collect himself.
“Alright baby. We’ll talk about it later. Are you two alright?”
We both nodded and Jack guided us over to the couch to sit down. After the ambulance came and collected the man, Anna and I gave our statements to the police officer. Jack told us we were done for the day and had me call off my shift for the night. Luke came by to pick up Anna and Jack took me home to have a stiff drink. He got on the phone to Cole and asked him to finish packing up the rest of the stuff with the guys, after he explained what happened. Then he called Sean and asked him to look into the robber and find out anything we needed to know. After that, he called Sebastian and asked for the number of the guy that trains police dogs. He had just finished up by the time we got back to Jack’s place.
I was exhausted and just wanted to relax in the bath. I soaked for a good hour and then got out and put on some comfy pajamas. When I came out, Jack had dinner waiting on the table. It was sweet because usually I did all the cooking. We ate in silence and then I took a glass of wine and snuggled into the couch. Jack came and sat by me and I knew he was about to start.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I’m just tired.” I finished my glass of wine and set it on the coffee table.
“Harper, you scared the shit out of me today. Please promise me that if that ever happens again, you will walk away and call the police.”
“I promise.”
I turned towards him and kissed him. I had to remember that it wasn’t just me anymore and I needed to consider Jack. Giving this promise would make Jack feel better and I would do anything to put him at ease.
“A friend of Sebastian’s is coming over tomorrow with a protection dog. We’ll see if he fits in here and if he does, he’ll be your dog.”
“I don’t take him everywhere with me, do I?”
“Not to work, but if you are going somewhere and they allow dogs, I would prefer it.”
I had never been a dog person, but decided that I had tested Jack’s patience enough tonight. I was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep. The easiest way to achieve that would be to agree to his request.
“Okay, babe. If it makes you feel better, I’ll do it.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jack
It had been a few months since the break in and everything was going great. The guys had helped me move the last of Harper’s things to my place. We were now the proud owners of a German Shepherd protection dog. He immediately took to Harper and had been going everywhere with her ever since. We had spent the last few months settling into a new routine around the house and working on plans for building an addition onto the house to make a space for Harper to do her writing. Her last book had done well so far and I had been trying to convince her to leave her job waitressing to write full time. I hadn’t had much luck yet, but I wasn’t giving up.
Thanksgiving was approaching in the next few weeks and I always did a celebration with my mom, Agnes Huntley. The first time Harper met my mother, she pulled Harper into a hug and told her she was so happy Harper had straightened out her son. They had gotten along well ever since and even set a lunch date for every Tuesday. Harper told me that she was happy to get together with her, especially since she didn’t get along with her own mother.
“Jack, I want to have a big Thanksgiving this year with all our friends and your mom. I have a schedule written out here with all the foods I want to make, prep times, and cook times. It’s going to be flawless. I may have to start the night before to cook for that many people, but it will be so worth it.”
“Baby, you know my mom will help in any way she can. She loves to cook as much as you do.”
“I know! I’ve already enlisted her help. How do you think I came up with all the recipes? We’ve been working on it for the past month.” Harper glanced down at what appeared to be a to-do list and checked off an item. “Now, I just need you to talk to the guys and see who is coming and if they are bringing someone with.” She looked up at me expectantly.
“Like, right now?”
“Well, not right this minute, but soon. I want to be as prepared as possible for this. If this goes well, imagine what we could do at Christmas.” Her eyes lit up as she spoke, but I wasn’t a huge fan of celebrating at Christmas. “We can decorate the house and put up lights all over the place. It’ll be so magical.” She was smiling like crazy and I really didn’t want to wipe that smile from her face. God, I hated Christmas. Dad had died right around Christmas and it sucked. I didn’t hold onto the anger anymore, but it was hard to be so happy when my dad wasn’t there to celebrate with us. We had so many great Christmas traditions that just weren’t the same without him.
“Maybe we don’t have to think about Christmas yet. It’s such a pain in the ass to get all that stuff out. Why don’t we just put up a tree and leave it at that.”
“What?! Just put up a tree? Are you crazy? I’ll do all the work. You don’t have to do a thing,” she pleaded with me.
“No. We’re not doing it,” I snapped at her. “Look, I get that you like all this shit, but you aren’t doing it by yourself because you’ll fall off a ladder and then I’ll have to do it, and I don’t want to do it. So the easiest solution is to not do it.”
Harper stood there stunned and I didn’t miss the look of hurt on her face, but I couldn’t deal with it right now. I wasn’t used to sharing this crap with someone else. I always made up my mind what I wanted and that was it. I didn’t need to consider someone else. I knew it didn’t work like that anymore, so I decided to take a breather and get my head on straight.
I grabbed my keys and left the house without another word. The final plans were over and Ryan and Logan’s office, so I decided to go over there and make sure we were all set to start building. The whole way there I thought about what an ass I had been, but shit, if I didn’t want to do something, I shouldn’t have to. This was the problem with relationships. All the sudden, what you want doesn’t matter.
I spent about an hour at the office working out the final details. They would be over to start work Monday morning. I had Ryan work with his interior decorator to come up with some sketches to show Harper. I was really excited to be able to do this for her. Maybe this would convince her to stop waitressing.
I wasn’t ready to go home yet, so I ran around town doing errands f
or the garage, got some new work clothes, and picked up some stuff for dinner. When he got home, it was dark out and there was just a single light on in the house. As I approached the house, I heard the dog whining, like he was in distress. When I opened the door and looked into the living room, I saw Harper on the floor in tears. Shit! Had I done this? I ran over to her and started rubbing her arms, trying to calm her down.
“Hey, baby. Tell me what’s wrong.”
I lifted her chin and saw tears streaming down her cheeks. A pain shot through my chest at the thought that I did this to her. Harper never cried. She was so strong.
“Baby, is this because of what I said before I left?”
She shook her head no, but continued to cry. She must have gotten horrible news. Had someone died?
“It’s gonna be okay, honey. Just tell me what’s wrong and we’ll figure it out together.”
I leaned in and hugged her while placing kisses to her temple. Harper’s breath started to hitch as she tried to talk and I could barely make out what she was trying to say.
“I was….doing laundry…and the phone rang….Oh, God!” Harper started sobbing some more and I knew this was going to be bad.
“Okay. What happened? Who was on the phone?”
“It was my mom. She said… Imgonnabea….” She started sobbing so hard I couldn’t make out the last thing she said. I started rubbing her back in soothing circles. “She said I’m gonna be a sister.” She was trying her best to stop crying, but the tears kept coming. I didn’t know much about her mom, but I had a feeling that this meant she felt wronged or something.
“You don’t want to be a sister?”
Her crying slowed and she looked up at me in confusion. “What? No that’s fine. I don’t really care about that. She….she married some rich guy that has a couple of kids.”
“Ah, so you’re upset because she didn’t invite you to the wedding.”
Jack (For The Love Of A Good Woman Book 1) Page 9